T'tre$tone Textiles Company SEPTEMBER • 1975 Gastonia Bennettsville Kentucky North Carolina South Carolina Boivling Green f OLD CLEANER OUT equipment at No. 8 treating unit did not operate at expected ef ficiency. A replacement unit is on order. Senior staff engineer William Linquist said installation should be completed sometime in No vember—by year’s end at the latest. PRINCIPLE of the new equip ment’s operation is similar to that of the original unit. Lind quist said the equipment cap tures fine dust particles from the Fall Quarter Students in five departments will begin classes Sept. 22 in the F^ll Quarter at North Carolina Vocational Textile School, Bel mont. Tailoring classes were already filled by late August, but regis tration is being accepted in Yarn Manufacturing, Weaving & De signing, Knitting & Designing, Dyeing & Finishing, and Mill Maintenance For telephone registration, call 825-3737. There is no tuition for North Carolina residents. Class schedules are arranged to ac commodate all three shifts for those working in textiles. All programs at the school are veteran-approved. Veterans in the Associate Degree program go to school 18 hours per week for fulltime benefits. • • Boy Scout Troop 631, sponsored by Firestone Tex tiles Company, Bennettsville, received the Order of Arrow honor recently at Camp Coker, Society Hill, S.C. The high honor was presented in recognition of skills of Scouting, minimum of requirements and special organization of Scouting. Scouts in picture (from left): Edward Patterson, Dannie Sweatt, David Nolan and Christopher Sweatt. FIRESTONE BEGINS SEPTEMBER 29 UW Seeks $742,000 Firestone’s annual employees’ fund drive in the Gaston County United Way campaign of 1975-76 will begin Sept. 29 and end by mid-October. In-plant campaign chair men are Clyde Thomasson, shift foreman in TC Weav ing; and Thomas A. Grant, manager of Industrial Engi neering, As usual, Firestone will aim for 100 per cent participation and as many Fair Share contrib utors as possible. Money pledged will be paid through the payroU- deduction plan. For Four Ideas In Awards $697 • Original unit installed in 1972 didn't meet efficiency re quirements. New One Coming Its main working parts were dismantled in August, to make way for a new installation later this year. The irrigated electrostatic precipitator, installed in 1972 at the Gastonia plant, was first in the rubber-textile industry. The environment-cleanup treating-drying fabric process. Particulates, or polluting par ticles, are electrostatically struck by a high-voltage charge and thus are collected on oppositely- charged plates. The material then flows off the plates to the bottom of the unit and into a tank for eventual disposal. Pure steam used in the process of cooling the hot gases from the treating ovens is the only thing released to the outside air. Lindquist said the new unit will operate within State and Federal air-quality standards. • A new lift-truck attachment for loading fabric. • Recycling spacer material for use in loading fabric in box cars. • Narrower headers on nylon rolls in dip-treat process. • A better way through run ning single cuts with double-cut rolls in treating. Suggestions on these subjects brought awards totaling $697 to four men at the Gastonia plant in recent weeks. Jesse Lee Parks Jr., Shop, earned $300 for his worked-out idea on a better way to load fabric lengthwise in railway cars. Because the usual way of loading involved placing rolls crosswise, the change in method called for a new way of picking up rolls. The company hired an outside contractor to develop a method to pick up the rolls with a lift truck. The truck attachment was tried out but proved unsatisfac tory. SO PARKS designed and built a set of squeeze clamps and put them on a demonstrator lift In August, the county United Way announced a $742,000 goal to fund its 1976 programs, a re duction from last year’s figure of $750,000. It is the first time the goal has ever been reduced since United giving began in Gaston county in 1953. MEMBERS of the organiza tion’s executive committee said the goal is a realistic response to the county’s economic situa tion and the basic need of the 32 affiliated agencies. In the county UW campaign this year, Firestone factory man ager Philip R. Williams is chair man of the 140 industrial divi sion. Mr. Williams and Firestone Textiles Company president James B. Call are members of the board of directors, Gaston Jess Parks Jr. New way to load beams. They’re Retired Pauline Stroupe and Kenny Tillman are the most recent at Gastonia to end employment careers with Firestone. Kenny had 6 years and 10 months service, ended on sever ance arrangement with the company. He was a tape bonder in TC Twisting. Pauline took early re tirement from her job as unifil tender in TC Weav ing. Her retirement, effec tive July 1, gave her 32 years and 4 months credit ed service. County United Way. Retired general factory manager F. B. Galligan is also a director. Harry Laver, Comptroller, served on the 1975-’76 agencies budget committee. Firestone people at Gastonia last year contributed almost $50,000 to the United Way cause. More Page 3